1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a clip which is made of synthetic resin and is used to fix, for example, a mounting part such as a trim or a garnish provided in a car, to a car body panel using a boss portion provided on and suspended perpendicularly from the back surface of the mounting part.
2. Description of the Related Art
This type of conventional clip, although not shown specifically, is a synthetic-resin-made integral member which includes a base body having a U-shaped section and a pair of mutually opposed side walls, a pair of elastic arms respectively extended from the inner surfaces of the respective side walls of the base body, and a pair of securing shoulders respectively provided on and projected from the outer surfaces of the respective side walls of the base body. In this clip, the base body includes, in the free end edges of the respective side walls, flange portions respectively projecting outwardly; the pair of elastic arms respectively include, on the inner surfaces of the leading end portions thereof, engaging pawl portions which can be engaged with an engaging hole formed in the above-mentioned boss portion; and, the pair of engaging shoulders respectively include tapered surface portions respectively formed on the upper surfaces thereof which can be secured to the hole edge of a mounting hole opened up in the car body panel, as disclosed in JP-A-2005-188718.
And, to fix a trim to a car body panel actually, firstly, when a boss portion provided on and suspended perpendicularly from the back surface of the trim is inserted into inside the two side walls of the base body of the clip, the engaging pawl portions provided on the pair of elastic arms are respectively engaged into the engaging hole of the boss portion from both sides to thereby engage the clip with the trim provisionally; and, while keeping this state, when the boss portion is inserted into a mounting hole previously formed in the car body panel to thereby secure the tapered surface portions of the respective securing shoulders to the hole edge of the mounting hole, the trim can be fixed to the car body panel.
On the other hand, to remove the trim from the car body panel, when trying to pull out the boss portion of the trim from the mounting hole of the car body panel, the lower surface of the engaging hole of the boss portion is collided with the lower surfaces of the engaging pawl portions of the respective elastic arms and the clip itself is thereby going to be pulled out together with the boss portion; however, in this state, when the securing shoulders respectively having the tapered surface portions are inserted into the mounting hole of the car body panel, the side walls of the clip are respectively flexed on the inside thereof and thus the inner surfaces of the side walls are respectively pressed against their associated elastic arms inwardly to thereby strengthen the engaged state between the securing hole of the boss portion and the engaging pawl portions of the respective elastic arms. Therefore, finally, while the clip remains mounted on the boss portion of the trim, the boss portion of the trim can be pulled out of the mounting hole of the car body panel.